John Kerry Warns North Korea: Missile Strike Would Be 'A Huge Mistake'

(Photo: Reuters/KCNA)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over an urgent operation meeting on the Korean People's Army Strategic Rocket Force's performance of duty for firepower strike at the Supreme Command in Pyongyang, March 29, 2013. The sign on the left reads, "Strategic force's plan to hit the mainland of the U.S."

Secretary of State John Kerry has issued a warning that any move by North Korea to launch a missile strike would be a "huge mistake," and that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should worry about providing food to his people rather than launching missiles.

During a news conference that also included a representative from South Korea, Kerry warned that any unprovoked attack order by Kim Jong-un would be to simply ignore the rest of the international community.

"If Kim Jong-un decides to launch a missile, whether it is across the Sea of Japan or some other direction, he will be choosing willfully to ignore the entire international community, his own obligations which he has accepted, and it will be a provocative and unwanted act that will raise people's temperature," Kerry said during a press conference after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.

Kerry pleaded with North Korea to think about its starving people and to stop the posturing that has put the world's leaders on edge.

"It is a huge mistake for him to choose to do that because it will further isolate his people ... who are desperate for food not missile launches, who are desperate for opportunity not for a leader who wants to flex his muscles in this manner … It's not going to change our current position, which is very, very clear: we will defend our allies," Kerry said.

A recent report focused on a declassified section from an analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency had advised that Pyongyang has the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile.

However, American officials have not detected efforts by North Korea that indicate that the country is making any serious attack preparations. Kerry did warn that a conflict arising out of perception and bad information would be the worst possible outcome.

"Kim Jong-un needs to understand, as I think he probably does, what the outcome of the conflict would be," Kerry said.